It's no worse than the jokes on nearly every episode of "Family Guy" and farkers quote that show like gospel.

Ricky Gervais has been helpful enough to explain the difference.

When you tell an offensive joke it can be funny if the teller and the audience both realize that it's offensive and are laughing at the offensiveness, and he demonstrates it by telling an (actually funny) joke about child molestation that utilizes that sense of absurd shock.

When either the teller or the listener doesn't get that and laughs because they think that the content of the joke is the funny part (e.g., "because [ethnic group] is so danged stupid!"), it's no longer a joke about offensiveness, it's just an offensive joke.

There's no meta-humor in a shirt like this. We're not supposed to be laughing at the stupidity of the idea of setting up traps for immigrants, we are supposed to be laughing at the actual people because they're a bunch of stupid beaners who can't resist tacos or figure their way out of a box.

Ctrl-Alt-Del:master_dman: It's perfectly acceptable to be racist against whites

Oh you poor oppressed white man. How will you ever survive the soul crushing burden of political correctness destroying your freedoms?

I think that there's a simple question that people can ask themselves before pulling the reverse racism card.

Is there an actually hurtful racial epithet that people can throw at you (and, no, "honky" isn't a good example)? If not, then it's probably pretty easy for you to be dismissive about claims of racism and maybe you should factor that into your considerations.

Take the crate and poke a bottle of wine under it. Who would you be targeting?

Depends on the wine. MD20/20 and African Americans will be outraged. Make it a $50 bottle and Hipsters will be amused.

Poke a big burger under there, change the wording to 'kid trap' and white folks will be outraged, especially those raising a litter of porkys.

Keep the wording and poke a bottle of Vodka there and Russians will just raise a toast and agree.

Change it to Cuss-cuss and you'll pi$$ off Middle Eastern folks.

When I was in school, all sorts of 'racial' jokes flew about since WW2 had ended just over a decade prior. Especially jokes concerning the Polish and Italians. (My ancestry is Spanish, Italian, Polish and German. Two of my great grand parents on either side could not speak English.)

The thing of it was, no one actually got offended. I knew a lot of Polish and Italian jokes. (How many Poles does it take to change a light bulb? 3. One to climb the ladder and hold the bulb. Two to lift and turn the ladder.)

You can't go through life without making a 'racial' joke about someone. (Chinese fire drill.) It's human nature to poke fun at other folks.

When they censored the early cartoons because of offensive depictions of blacks and Japanese, no one paid attention to the fact that the majority of 'offensive' depictions were about white folks and Americans.

Apparently, it's just fine to ridicule them. That's not racist. Look back to cartoons and movies made before the 1960's and you'll find whites and mainly Americans lampooning themselves far more than any other race or nationality.

Elmer Fudd was the epitome of the dumb white guy hunter. They lampooned door to door salesmen, slick talking car dealers, cops and especially politicians. Bugs Bunny was forever running into an oily looking magician, matre-d (sp), salesman or farmer who was determined to make his life miserable. All had big noses, slicked back oily hair and tended to resemble weasels.

The majority of kids who saw 'Song of the South' did not see Uncle Remus as an ex-slave, but a good natured, wise, old Black man, full of wonderful stories. They saw the Bear and wolf going after Brar'e (SP) Rabbit as backwoods hicks.

Speedy Gonzales was a Mexican hero. His career was ended because of 'racism'. Though, the cartoon was not exactly racist. He made the Mexicans look good.

Political Correctness turned into censorship real fast and folks suddenly decided that they were being made fun of because of their race or nationality.

They had to be told that.

Yosemite Sam was a Cowboy stereotype, hot tempered and quick on the trigger -- but he was white so no one cared that he was an idiot. Yet depicting an American Indian acting dumb and it was offensive.

Folks need to get over themselves. Any time you create an 'Offensive' tag, it rapidly gets out of control and starts covering everything, often for some of the stupidest reasons.

Why would legal Mexican immigrants avoid tacos as opposed to illegal immigrants eating them? Isn't this the question the reporter should be asking? The 'joke' relies on the premise that illegal immigrants and Mexicans are the same thing--otherwise it wouldn't make sense to use tacos to catch "illegal immigrants." Of course tacos are hardly equivalent to Mexican food, but I doubt they know that.

mycatisposter:Bigotry against legal southerners seems to be perfectly acceptable, but if are a criminal from far enough south, it is an outrage. Interesting.

If I'm a Yankee and I open a Southern themed restaurant and stock it with a stock it with a bunch of stupid Hillbilly stereotypes whose main purpose is to depict Southerners as ignorant and inbred then I am, without any doubt, a colossally bigoted asshole no matter how much I try to pretend that it's all in good fun.

Loadmaster:"Just so happens we used tacos because we have a Mexican restaurant."

Some 'Splainin' To Do: There's no meta-humor in a shirt like this. We're not supposed to be laughing at the stupidity of the idea of setting up traps for immigrants, we are supposed to be laughing at the actual people because they're a bunch of stupid beaners who can't resist tacos or figure their way out of a box. Now do you get it?

Loadmaster: So are we saying that Mexicans are the only folks that like tacos?

Some 'Splainin' To Do: Ah, the ever popular coy gambit.

So if an Italian restaurant had baited their illegal immigrant trap with a pizza, no one would be calling them racists, right?

This is another variation of the coy gambit: "Well gee, nobody is the least bit sensitive about Italian immigration, these days! What possible reason could Mexicans have for being sensitive? What a bunch of crybabies!"

And the super-fun thing about the coy gambit is that both sides are perfectly aware of the subtext, but we're, for some reason, supposed to ignore all that and pretend that some sort of valid point has been scored.

master_dman:Ctrl-Alt-Del: master_dman: It's perfectly acceptable to be racist against whites

Oh you poor oppressed white man. How will you ever survive the soul crushing burden of political correctness destroying your freedoms?

We survive because we don't get all butthurt about every little slight.

Actually, you do. And you caused wars about it

Examples: Greeks thought that non-greek languages (and sometimes other greek city-states) all sounded like BAR-BAR-BAR-BAR-BAR-BAR-BAR-BAR-BAR-BAR (therefore coining the term Barbarian). Romans expanded the view from mostly Greek to Greco-Roman, so as to include themselves in the list (but not those filthy Gauls, they're just icky BAR-BAR-BAR-Barbarians).

Most Europeans in the Middle Ages considered Russians as not European, to the point that the isolated themselves from them (didn't help much that the Kiev peoples were subjects of constant attack from the Mongols, but then again the Mongols weren't so bad if you think about it).

And, in recent times, the Slavic peoples killing each other because of differences in ethnicity even though they share history. I could go on and on.

So really, you're strawman is just that. In the end, mankind is the worst of species and we should all just off ourselves with nukes.

Rik01:Take the crate and poke a bottle of wine under it. Who would you be targeting?

Depends on the wine. MD20/20 and African Americans will be outraged. Make it a $50 bottle and Hipsters will be amused.

Poke a big burger under there, change the wording to 'kid trap' and white folks will be outraged, especially those raising a litter of porkys.

Keep the wording and poke a bottle of Vodka there and Russians will just raise a toast and agree.

Change it to Cuss-cuss and you'll pi$$ off Middle Eastern folks.

When I was in school, all sorts of 'racial' jokes flew about since WW2 had ended just over a decade prior. Especially jokes concerning the Polish and Italians. (My ancestry is Spanish, Italian, Polish and German. Two of my great grand parents on either side could not speak English.)

The thing of it was, no one actually got offended. I knew a lot of Polish and Italian jokes. (How many Poles does it take to change a light bulb? 3. One to climb the ladder and hold the bulb. Two to lift and turn the ladder.)

You can't go through life without making a 'racial' joke about someone. (Chinese fire drill.) It's human nature to poke fun at other folks.

When they censored the early cartoons because of offensive depictions of blacks and Japanese, no one paid attention to the fact that the majority of 'offensive' depictions were about white folks and Americans.

Apparently, it's just fine to ridicule them. That's not racist. Look back to cartoons and movies made before the 1960's and you'll find whites and mainly Americans lampooning themselves far more than any other race or nationality.

Elmer Fudd was the epitome of the dumb white guy hunter. They lampooned door to door salesmen, slick talking car dealers, cops and especially politicians. Bugs Bunny was forever running into an oily looking magician, matre-d (sp), salesman or farmer who was determined to make his life miserable. All had big noses, slicked back oily hair and tended to resemble weasels.

All were white American ...

We white folks have always been in the position of power. That is what makes the bar of racism against us much higher. We don't have the history of being ACTUALLY discriminated against, or it's far enough back (like Irish prejudice) that people of Irish ancestry more or less have the same advantages of the rest of us crackers. This is especially true when racism is still being practiced against groups like Hispanics.

Rik01:Take the crate and poke a bottle of wine under it. Who would you be targeting?

Depends on the wine. MD20/20 and African Americans will be outraged. Make it a $50 bottle and Hipsters will be amused.

Poke a big burger under there, change the wording to 'kid trap' and white folks will be outraged, especially those raising a litter of porkys.

Keep the wording and poke a bottle of Vodka there and Russians will just raise a toast and agree.

Change it to Cuss-cuss and you'll pi$$ off Middle Eastern folks.

When I was in school, all sorts of 'racial' jokes flew about since WW2 had ended just over a decade prior. Especially jokes concerning the Polish and Italians. (My ancestry is Spanish, Italian, Polish and German. Two of my great grand parents on either side could not speak English.)

The thing of it was, no one actually got offended. I knew a lot of Polish and Italian jokes. (How many Poles does it take to change a light bulb? 3. One to climb the ladder and hold the bulb. Two to lift and turn the ladder.)

You can't go through life without making a 'racial' joke about someone. (Chinese fire drill.) It's human nature to poke fun at other folks.

When they censored the early cartoons because of offensive depictions of blacks and Japanese, no one paid attention to the fact that the majority of 'offensive' depictions were about white folks and Americans.

Apparently, it's just fine to ridicule them. That's not racist. Look back to cartoons and movies made before the 1960's and you'll find whites and mainly Americans lampooning themselves far more than any other race or nationality.

Elmer Fudd was the epitome of the dumb white guy hunter. They lampooned door to door salesmen, slick talking car dealers, cops and especially politicians. Bugs Bunny was forever running into an oily looking magician, matre-d (sp), salesman or farmer who was determined to make his life miserable. All had big noses, slicked back oily hair and tended to resemble weasels.

All were white American ...

here here.

Everybody is so easily butthurt. Bunch of whiny pussies.

It's perfectly acceptable to be racist against whites.. but the other way around and you should be viciously tortured before being killed.

Yeah, they just aren't funny. They get "mean and hurtful" and they get "aww shucks" but funny is a stretch. Not that liberals don't go "mean and hurtful," but they have a whole bag of tricks in addition. Must have to do with education, more specifically not automatically demonizing it.

That's pretty much my definition of conservative humor. It typically degrades or demonizes some group or person, is mean and hurtful, and oh yeah not funny. "Mexicans are lazy, smell bad, and only eat tacos. Hey man, don't get mad at me because you can't take a joke!"

Or they complain about people being too PC, aka the white man's victim card.

UberDave:Krieghund: Though I'd hate to see South Carolina's idea of Mexican-style food.

I thought of it makes the salsa rise in my gullet.

Even their regional food sucks. You can get a good idea, typically, of regional cuisine by stopping in local hole-in-the-wall eateries. I'm heading into East Texas today. If I see a roadside shack out there offering East Texas BBQ, boudin, or tamales, it's going to be something good. In SC, if you see a roadside BBQ shack, it's going to taste like roadkill, ass, and vinegar.

F these racist assholes, I'm going over to the Michoacana mercado at lunch and buying some al pastor tacos from some gal that can barely speak English, and it will be glorious.I know enough that when she says para aqui o' aya, it means for here or to go, and when she says sabor y cilantro(chopped onion and cilantro), I'd damn well better say "Si".

oh_please:Wow, that's some edgy comedy, right there. I'm not offended because of the racism, I'm offended that someone thought that lame joke was worth putting on a shirt.

And charging $35, no less! The mark-up is the real crime here.

I'm a person that believes that we should have smart immigration control, and that illegal immigration is a bad situation for criminal influx, abuse of the not-otherwise-criminal immigrants, and yes social services in areas that feel its greatest impact. It is a really raw deal for legal immigrants that have to jump through hoops like you wouldn't believe to get their ticket punched. However, these folks are the ultimate capitalists... they come to work like crazy at a lower cost than the competition in a variety of fields. They're typically pretty conservative Christians (Catholic, Mormon, and others) and are working to better their family's situation.

And they get sh*t on by the same people that employ them, who otherwise hold the exact same values.

My son (15 years old), was talking about UNM raising entrance requirements as being racist towards Hispanics. I asked him if Hispanics were disproportionately dumber than the overall population; he said no. I told him there's nothing racist about it. It's an ethnicity(which it is), not a race. They can claim "La Raza" as much as they want, doesn't make it true, Just like Santa clause and the Easter Bunny, and God, it's not true. Not hating on anyone, just stating facts.hungry now, going out for Huevos a la mexicana burritos. Topped w/Habañero salsa.

Somacandra:Why would legal Mexican immigrants avoid tacos as opposed to illegal immigrants eating them? Isn't this the question the reporter should be asking? The 'joke' relies on the premise that illegal immigrants and Mexicans are the same thing--otherwise it wouldn't make sense to use tacos to catch "illegal immigrants." Of course tacos are hardly equivalent to Mexican food, but I doubt they know that.

Exactly.

When you become a legal US citizen, do you all of the sudden lose your taste for tacos? That makes no sense, culinary or otherwise.

Reporter: "Let's say if you were to put a watermelon or some fried chicken under the box?"Um, that's a stereotype about African Americans, not actual Africans. African Americans are by definition not illegal immigrants. Would anybody have actually concluded racism from that, or just been confused?

Danger Mouse:You really need to spend some time over in the Politics tab. I think you'd be very suprised on how your fellow liberal farkers post there. They are far from the accepting, enlightened and party of tolerance your party leaders put forth.

I've been to that trolled-out hell hole. However, "tolerance" of flat-earth-level ignorance isn't what "tolerance" is about. Tolerating differences in culture that are no threat to your own is one thing, expecting others to tolerate one version of culture that is being shoe-horned into law to deny others' rights is another. I'm sorry if you've been misled.

The analogous stance in the other direction plays out in gun control threads, where the liberal farkers are all about squelching rights.

Nadie_AZ:You want to fix the 'illegal' problem from Mexico? Help Mexico be a better place to live. Yes, their issues are ours. Moreso than Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and other places on the other side of the world.

If we, as a country, could cease our unquenchable appetite for their cocaine, meth, and weed I think that would solve all sorts of their problems. I'm doing my part... nothing but Afghani black-tar stuff for me!

master_dman:Look back to cartoons and movies made before the 1960's and you'll find whites and mainly Americans lampooning themselves far more than any other race or nationality....

Whites have had it so tough being the minority! First they were slaves, then the job discrimination thing, then the education thing. I'm so impressed that they have retained their kindness and civility through their long period of oppression.

You want to fix the 'illegal' problem from Mexico? Help Mexico be a better place to live. Yes, their issues are ours. Moreso than Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and other places on the other side of the world.

The best tacos I ever had were in Rocky Point on the 'Mexican' side of the beach. Up the beach, down a road, past the place with the huge hat and mustache on the building and to a 3 walled 'building' where a family makes the best tacos in the world. They also bring out amazing fixings to go with it- Cucumbers, pineapple, and on and on and on all on corn tortillas (the way it ought to be) with some shrimp.

What else is there? Oh, Mexico has a rich history and has a lot to offer the US. The northern part of Mexico is different than the central/southern part.

Some 'Splainin' To Do: There's no meta-humor in a shirt like this. We're not supposed to be laughing at the stupidity of the idea of setting up traps for immigrants, we are supposed to be laughing at the actual people because they're a bunch of stupid beaners who can't resist tacos or figure their way out of a box. Now do you get it?

So are we saying that Mexicans are the only folks that like tacos?

Ah, the ever popular coy gambit.

"Why, how in the world can this be only directed at Mexicans? Everyone likes Tacos! Oh... and those colors? Sure, the Mexican flag has them too, but who doesn't like the colors red, white and green? The fact that you think that this is about Mexicans just proves that you're a racist!"

I think the funniest example of real, accidental racism I have ever seen was an article wherein the author stated it was racist for a white woman to use the hashtag #thuglife.

Loadmaster:"Just so happens we used tacos because we have a Mexican restaurant."

Some 'Splainin' To Do: There's no meta-humor in a shirt like this. We're not supposed to be laughing at the stupidity of the idea of setting up traps for immigrants, we are supposed to be laughing at the actual people because they're a bunch of stupid beaners who can't resist tacos or figure their way out of a box. Now do you get it?

So are we saying that Mexicans are the only folks that like tacos?

Ah, the ever popular coy gambit.

"Why, how in the world can this be only directed at Mexicans? Everyone likes Tacos! Oh... and those colors? Sure, the Mexican flag has them too, but who doesn't like the colors red, white and green? The fact that you think that this is about Mexicans just proves that you're a racist!"

this kind of reasoning is exactly how my dad thinks. when the guy with a hispanic name who ran from the scene of an accident i was in was found to have outstanding warrants, my dad said he was probably an illegal alien and that's why he ran. i said he shouldn't make that assumption. he claimed i was the one making assumptions.the old "i know you are, but what am i?" ruse works every time.

Latinwolf:Or they complain about people being too PC, aka the white man's victim card.

"Political correctness for show" is a problem, but I hear people call "PC run amok" over the stupidest sh*t all the time. "Navy skipper relieved of duty for inappropriate conduct" when the "conduct" was letting half his crew get wasted and arrested in a foreign port. PC RUN AMOK. Female students out-performing males in school and college. PC RUN AMOK.

I guess I just don't feel threatened enough, although I'm still only 35.

Yeah, they just aren't funny. They get "mean and hurtful" and they get "aww shucks" but funny is a stretch. Not that liberals don't go "mean and hurtful," but they have a whole bag of tricks in addition. Must have to do with education, more specifically not automatically demonizing it.

That's pretty much my definition of conservative humor. It typically degrades or demonizes some group or person, is mean and hurtful, and oh yeah not funny. "Mexicans are lazy, smell bad, and only eat tacos. Hey man, don't get mad at me because you can't take a joke!"

Now you're just trolling. TXBBQ and SC BBQ are very different but "sucks" is horse sh*t.

neritz:It's surprisingly not bad as long as you go to the right ones. Just look for the ones that are fully staffed, but only have one car in the parking lot.

I've had Mexican food all over San Diego, which I have to assume is good since it seemed quite popular with Mexicans and made by Mexicans, as well as getting recommendations to my married-to-a-native-Mexican boss, and I've found similar fare here in Charleston. I've had some blah stuff, too. We have Mexicans just like every other state, from the source. Agriculture-heavy economies tend to attract them, and more power to them, especially when it means I have a broad selection of fare.

Yeah, they just aren't funny. They get "mean and hurtful" and they get "aww shucks" but funny is a stretch. Not that liberals don't go "mean and hurtful," but they have a whole bag of tricks in addition. Must have to do with education, more specifically not automatically demonizing it.

My mother who is an otherwise pleasant woman has quite a few bigoted views which drives me absolutely nuts. She pretty much ALWAYS prefaces one of her rants with that line.

Makes her look a total idiot but she's old so what can you do. After years of me shaming her on her use of the words "darky" and "Paki (which she uses to describe anybody from the middle east... including India)" she's a little better but with all the hateful crap that's started becoming acceptable in the media because of the wars and the Obama haters it's bubbling back to the surface.